Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was a Burkinabè military officer, Marxist revolutionary and Pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in 1987. He is viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of the revolution, and a powerful advocate for Pan-Africanism and workers rights, while his critics condemn his human rights abuses and the authoritarian government he led.
Official portrait, 1983
Moussa Traoré
Pioneers of the Revolution
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe.
Jamaican Marcus Garvey in a military uniform as the "Provisional President of Africa" during a parade on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City, 1922
Malcolm X (1964; aged 39)
Kwame Nkrumah, an icon of pan-Africanism
A mural in Ujiji, Tanzania